MINNEAPOLIS — Jim Webb is taking a stand against what he calls the Democratic Party’s favoritism toward former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Webb will skip the Democratic National Committee summer meeting this week in order to send the DNC a message about keeping a level playing field in the primaries rather than favoring the front-runner.
On Thursday, the Clinton campaign announced a joint fundraising agreement with the DNC, which is intended to help a party committee saddled with debt. But to Webb’s team, this is a sign that the Democratic establishment has already tied their cart to Clinton’s horse.
“What’s the point of time limited 10-minute speeches and a hospitality room?” Webb campaign aide Craig Crawford told BuzzFeed News. “And considering the DNC announcement of their joint fundraising deal with the Clinton campaign haven’t they just turned themselves into another poor parody of ‘The Sopranos’?”
He added, “The DNC and the Clinton campaign must be channeling former AIG chairman Hank Greenberg, who once said, ‘All I ask for is an unfair advantage’.”
This is not the first time a rival candidate has protested that the party is biased in favor of Clinton. Both Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley have urged the DNC to allow the candidates more time to debate, saying the strict rules favor the front-runner.
According to the DNC, any candidate who participates in an unsanctioned debate will not be allowed on the stage for the six committee-sanctioned debates.
At the opening of the presidential candidate forum on Friday morning, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz told those in the audience that Webb skipped the meeting for other reasons, saying “Senator Jim Webb could not be with us today, he is taking his daughter to college … we miss him but we know we will see him on the trail and at our debates in the future.”
Webb, a former senator from Virginia and onetime Republican who worked for Ronald Reagan, currently polls at less than 2 percent nationally. All Democratic candidates were invited to give a 10-minute address to the party’s annual gathering. Clinton, Sanders, O’Malley and Lincoln Chafee were all on hand to speak.
